The “Fortnite” Championship Series (FNCS) Pro-Am for the first time since 2019. This year, 40 people, from top professional “Fortnite” video game players to content creators, will be paired into 20 groups playing the game mode “Fortnite Reload” to compete for a $500,000 prize pool and the FNCS Pro-Am trophy.
The players will also meet with attending fans during scheduled meet-and-greet sessions. Some of these players include Kyle Giersdorf (Bugha), Cody Conrad (Clix), Lachlan Power (Lachlan), Kyle Jackson (Mongraal), Ali Hassan (SypherPK) and Jack Dunlop (CourageJD).
Those interested can attend the event at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 10, at the University of Southern California Galen Center, 3400 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles. Tickets start at $44.
“I’m honored to be invited to participate in the Fortnite Championship Series Pro-Am and have done so many things alongside the great team over at Epic Games, the creators of ‘Fortnite,’ to build a fantastic audience,” Dunlop said, who got his start playing “Halo” in the 2007 esports scene.
Dunlop was also a competitive “Call of Duty” player with Major League Gaming, who now owns the lifestyle brand 100 Thieves and actively creates videos centered around “Fortnite.”
Dunlop also made friends outside the gaming scene with pop star Ariana Grande. Dunlop is a fan of Grande and parodied her song “Boyfriend.” Grande enjoyed it so much that she invited Dunlop and his girlfriend to appear in her and fellow musical artist Justin Bieber’s music video “Stuck with U.”
“I’ll have many friends and colleagues as competitors in this event, which will be a fun twist,” Dunlop said, speaking on FNCS. “This isn’t the first time I’ve done one of these, but for a tournament of this size and magnitude with this much on the line and this many hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of people tuning in makes it a rare occurrence. I’m looking forward to it.”
Dunlop said the competitive video game scene has changed significantly since he started playing.
“Even before ‘Fortnite,’ way back in the day, there were more local events and you’d almost want to keep it hush hush because people didn’t view it as this cool thing to be part of,” Dunlop said. “Now, it’s taken over as part of the global entertainment space and is recognized as one of the biggest forms of entertainment in the world. Being a full-time video creator, it’s a challenge to find balance. For one, the thing you love most, which is playing video games, is still a job. Being a daily live streamer of ‘Fortnite’ means keeping a balance of gaming as my job and a passion, which I think is why I’ve been able to do it for the greater part of a decade.
“Thankfully, I’ve had some of my best friends come from gaming. I’m still best friends with all my high school buddies who used to visit me at my parents’ house, bringing over their gaming consoles. We would play until 6 in the morning on Friday nights. Still being connected with them and finding games to play away from my live streaming, where I’m just gaming with no audience, has been nice.”
Dunlop explained that online video creators are always numbers-focused, finding ways to increase views and social engagement.
“You need to make sure you can adapt and stay ahead of the curve,” Dunlop said. “It can take up a lot of your time, so you should devote time to exercising or leaving your house to spend time with friends. This plays a key role in keeping your mental health in a good space and staying clear-headed to be the best content creator you can be.
“You also have to be incredibly creative, ideate and find what helps separate yourself from the millions of others online. ‘Fortnite’ is one of the largest games worldwide, and many people consider this their dream opportunity.”
Having spent now eight years as a “Fortnite” player and video creator, Dunlop says he will continue to play and thinks that the game’s developer has a good handle on where “Fortnite” should be for its player base. He said Epic Games should continue to invest in the competitive aspects of this game, especially with its ranking system.
“I think Epic Games is still an industry leader with live in-game events and how they creatively approach the different seasons in the game,” Dunlop said. “I always know they’ll push to outdo themselves in the past, and if they do so, it means I will be successful as well.”
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